Anton De Pasquale at the Gold Coast 500 media call. Image: Supplied
The 31-year-old faced media on Monday ahead of the weekend’s Gold Coast 500, where he’ll be in the thick of the Finals Series action.
Speaking just eight days after running out of fuel while leading on the last lap of the Great Race, De Pasquale gave an honest assessment of the fallout.
“The mood is what is expected,” he said of the atmosphere within the Melbourne-based squad.
“Obviously, the guys got into [servicing] the cars really quickly, and we reset our goals as quick as possible, which is obviously this weekend.
“The mood’s not great, but everyone’s still got their eyes on winning some surfboards here and still having a good weekend.”
Despite that frank admission, De Pasquale is confident the team can put its best foot forward on the Gold Coast.
De Pasquale enters the weekend seventh in the standings, just nine points above the cut-off line to transition to the Semi-Final at Sandown.
“We’ve got a team full of people who love being at the racetrack, and they’re all racers, and they’ve grown up around it,” he said.
“So getting to the next track and having eyes on the next prize is not a big problem.
“Obviously, we still lost the biggest race of the year, so that’s still going to hurt for a long time, but we’re able to differentiate between that and what we’re here for.”
What really went wrong for Team 18 at Bathurst
The Surfers Paradise event marked the end of De Pasquale’s championship charge last year.
However, the performance at Bathurst indicated the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned squad has the potential to push deeper this time around as it flies the flag for General Motors.
Among those supporting De Pasquale is Enduro Cup co-driver Lee Holdsworth, who reflected on the Bathurst heartbreak via a social media post on Sunday,
“The result was one of the hardest things you can experience in sport, but to have a car capable of winning the Bathurst 1000 is incredible,” he wrote.
“There are plenty of hard luck stories in sport, and this will always go down as the one that got away, but there are so many people behind the scenes that felt the hurt as much as Anton and I.
“I will be cheering Anton home for the rest of the season and hope he gets his redemption. He’s a brilliant driver and deserves a lot of success. It will come buddy. Keep pushing!”
De Pasquale, though, isn’t willing to play into any idea that Team 18’s Finals campaign will be fuelled by a desire for redemption.
“I think Bathurst and the championship are two separate things,” he said. “There’s no redemption or anything. Obviously, reset and eyes on the final prize.”